NHL: Is compromise the key to solving lockout?

TROY – If there’s one thing for certain in the negotiations for a new collective bargaining agreement between the NHL and its players it’s neither side is willing to budge, at least for now.

With a week left before the regular season is set to begin, both sides are no closer to an agreement than they were when the lockout commenced at midnight on Sept. 16.

“Unless (the players) show some willingness to compromise, I don’t know how we get this done,” NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly told reporters after labor talks broke off Tuesday in New York.

“It’s funny that they say that because right now it’s take it or leave it from their side,” Henrik Zetterberg said after skating with a handful of teammates at Troy Sports Center on Wednesday. “They don’t want to talk if we don’t want to give up a lot of concessions from deals that are already made. They don’t want to honor the contracts we have now.

“Basically, if we’re not ready to give up that, they don’t want to talk,” Zetterberg added. “Or they don’t want to talk about core economics, so we believe the deals that are already signed should be left alone and should focus on what we can do in the future instead.”

The Wings are scheduled to open the season at home Oct. 12 against the Nashville Predators.

There are four games scheduled on Oct. 11.

The league continues to wait for a counter proposal from the players, which doesn’t seem like it’s coming anytime soon.

“I don’t know if you can call it a counter proposal because we can’t really counter what they are offering,” Zetterberg said. “We’re working on an alternative proposal, but it feels right now that if we don’t give everything they want it doesn’t really matter. We will never do that. It’s tough to negotiate with yourself basically. That’s what we feel like we’re doing. They’re not coming off anything, we’re trying to find ways to make it work. They’re sticking to their views and we think that’s wrong.”

The NHL’s current proposal has players’ share of the revenue reduced to 47 percent over the course of a six-year deal. The players, who received 57 percent last season, has gone down to approximately 52 percent.

“I don’t say it’s frustrating because this is the way (Gary Bettman) negotiates,” Zetterberg said. “We’ve been through this before and if he’s going to stay there we’ll probably go through it again. We know how he does things. We’ve just got to find ways to still make a deal happen, but we can’t give in to the things we really believe it. We’ve got to stick together and keep doing this and hopefully one day we will play again.”

This is the third lockout under Bettman’s watch.

The first, in 1994-95, ended after 103 days. The last time the league locked the players out it resulted in the cancellation of the 2004-05 season.

“It kind of feels a little bit like sometimes when they say no progress it means we’re not giving them any rollbacks in our proposals and until we do that there won’t be any progress made,” Niklas Kronwall said. “That’s the feeling I get anyway. Hopefully that’s a hurdle we can overcome here as soon as possible.

“None of us are happy with how the situation is, but at the same time we’re looking for a fair deal that’s not only fair to us, but to the owners and fans as well,” Kronwall added. “I think at the end of the day that’s what we want. I think as long as you can keep the discussions going sooner or later there’s going to be a breakthrough and once that happens everything will get done pretty quick.”

Zetterberg heading to Switzerland?

There is a report that Zetterberg has been offered a deal from HC Lugano.

“I’m going to stay for now,” Zetterberg said. “We haven’t really lost any games yet. We’ve lost a few exhibition games, but once you start to lose games, if you get an offer or get a deal on the table, maybe you think about it. But, for now, I’m going to stick around here.”

Lugano plays in Switzerland’s National League A and has won seven Swiss championships.

The deal, which was reported by the newspaper Blick, has the club paying $53,000 a month for insurance and giving Zetterberg a $2,000 monthly salary.

At this point, playing in Sweden seems out of the question for many of the Swedes on the team.

“It’s going to be tough to go to Sweden, for the insurance and all the taxes we have there,” Zetterberg said. “It’s going to be tough to go back to Sweden to play, but there are other leagues in Europe that you can go to.”

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